The Prime Minister’s Supreme Award went to Dr Te Taka Keegan, a senior lecturer in the Computer Science Department at The University of Waikato. Dr Keegan was recognised for his outstanding sustained contribution to teaching and learning over a 30-year career, in which he has blended passions for te reo Māori and computer science. He is the only person in New Zealand who can teach a computer science paper completely in te reo.

Other highlights of Dr Keegan’s career so far include the management of the Niupepa Collection – the digitisation of a collection of newspapers that were published between 1842 to 1932, primarily in te reo Māori.

He has also previously worked with Google on the translation of their web search interface into te reo Māori.

The Awards are hosted at parliament by Hon Paul Goldsmith, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment. Ako Aotearoa – the National Centre for Tertiary Teaching Excellence – administers the awards for the Minister.

12 other Sustained Excellence awards were handed out in addition to the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award – two in the Kaupapa Māori category (including Dr Keegan) and a further ten in the General category. All Sustained Excellence winners receive $20,000 and the Supreme Award winner an additional $10,000.

2017 Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award winners

The Sustained Excellence award winners under the two categories include:

General Category

Professor Ursula Cheer – Dean of Law University of Canterbury

Dr Liz Ditzel Principal Lecturer, School of Nursing Otago Polytechnic

Dr Ruth Fitzgerald Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology University of Otago

Gail Harrison Manager and Lead Educator, The Whanganui Learning Centre